Deterring Birds From Your Home
Bird watching is a growing phenomenon. It's great unless you
have birds "raining" down on your home. Fortunately, there are a
wide variety of bird deterrents available now. .
If you're reading this article, you have concerns for the
environment and try to take steps not to destroy it. This is
extremely commendable, but even the heartiest environmentalist
hates the things birds can do. Sometimes they are just letting
nature take its course after eating while other times they
seemed to have picked your space as home. A couple birds can be
great. A flock can drive you insane.
The traditional method of dealing with excessive attention from
birds is the use of scarecrows. In theory, scarecrows present
birds with the illusion of a person being present and supposedly
get the birds to move along to another neighborhood. As with
many traditional beliefs, this one is partially true. Birds
don't care for humans, but traditional scarecrows really aren't
particularly persuasive. Something that moves, however,
definitely does the trick.
Modern scarecrows come in a variety of forms. None of them look
like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Instead, they tend to
come in two primary forms.
The first is in the form of a predatory bird that is motion
activated. A particular favorite is the owl, a known predator of
most birds.
The second form of bird deterrents is the spinning arm device.
Motion activated, the device sits on a platform and has long
"arms" that whip around when activated. They are often called
"whirly birds" or some similar title. To save a little money,
you can even go with solar powered bird deterrents.
Solar powered deterrents tend to come in the whirly bird
category. Motion activated predatory birds such as owls tend to
be battery operated, which can make them expensive over time.
The best approach is typically to buy a solar whirly bird and
life-sized cheap owl. Place the owl an easily viewed area where
the birds congregate and place the whirly bird exactly where
they are causing problems. The combination usually takes care of
any problems.